Australia forward Matthew Scott says his team is facing a week of tough preparation ahead of their Rugby League World Cup final clash against New Zealand at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday (2.30pm).
The Kangaroos have cantered to the final of RLWC2013, having dispatched Fiji in their Big Hit semi-final on Saturday 64-0, which also ensured that Tim Sheens’ side extended their run of not conceding a try to over five hours of game time.
However Scott, who has played in four of Australia’s five matches, does not think that their semi-final result – or any previous form – will count ahead of Saturday’s showcase, despite Australia’s combined score reading 210-2 from four games since their opening match against England.
“We have got to really knuckle down this week,” said Scott. “We will keep working on our defence. We can’t take the scoreline from our game against Fiji into too much consideration.
“We’ll have to prepare really well this week. We will do our homework on the Kiwis and come out against them as strong as we can.
“I thought it went pretty well against Fiji, we kept our defensive focus and to keep another team to nil was pretty good.
“The defence has been good throughout the tournament. We conceded a couple of easy tries against England early on but since then we spoke about improving in that area, and to our credit, we have.
“But we are going to have to be a lot better in all areas to beat New Zealand. We are coming up against top opposition now and against Fiji I think we lost our way a little bit with some of our plays.”
Scott feels that their World Cup final opponents will have benefitted from a titanic encounter with host nation England in the other Big Hit semi-final at Wembley last weekend, though does not want to read too much into Australia’s opponents.
“New Zealand had a tougher game and they showed they can grind out a win” said Scott. “When you’re preparing for a World Cup final that’s probably the best preparation you can have.
“We have had relatively straightforward games against USA and Fiji, but New Zealand were put to the test and that should benefit them on Saturday.
“I think having a tougher test would have been better for us but I don’t think it will make too much of a difference. You can’t look back too much on these games, you have just got to take what you can out of it.”